I think that the Bristol artist who has stretched the most so far this year is Zake. He has consistently been expanding his repertoire pretty much with each new piece and is becoming more original with his designs and ideas. This recent wizard piece at the M32 Spot is a great example of how varied his work is becoming.
Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, April 2023
Although it is easy to see, in this column piece, the traits for which Zake is best known, namely the use of light and dark shading to create depth, it does not scream out Zake on the surface, and had it not been signed, it would have taken me a little while to work it out. An unusual and fun piece from the Spanish face specialist.
Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Here we have another wonderful portrait piece from the Lighthouse Community Garden in London, this time from an artist called Vane MG. She is an artist and designer originally from Colombia, but is now living and working in London. The following is from her excellent website:
She worked in the Design world from 2009 & in 2015 she started working on projects which focussed on highlighting the importance of Latin American women. Her objective is to attempt to reclaim elements of the cultural past, integrating it with the present and creating new images that help to define a lost identity.
Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
The portrait of a young girl is exquisitely painted in lilac and turquoise tones, creating depth with clever light and shadowing. A child’s windmill is in front of the girl, whose expression is slightly haunting, with the glimmer of a smile hiding a sadness – at least that is how I see it. A truly lovely piece for another artist who needs to be snapped up for the next Upfest festival in Bristol.
Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
One of the things about finding street art in a place that isn’t your home, is that you will come across artists that you are unfamiliar with, and that is certainly the case here with this fabulous portrait piece by Elno at the Lighthouse Community Garden in Stratford.
Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Elena Gonzalez Nieto also known as ELNO, is a Spanish visual artist based in London since 2014 (taken from her fabulous website) who it would seem specialises in stunning portrait pieces elaborated with bright colourful backgrounds. Although painted last year, the piece looks fresh and vibrant – definitely a candidate for Upfest I would have thought.
Last weekend, Paul H and I took a trip to Weston-super-Mare to photograph some of the street art there, not least the impressive recent additions from the last three years thanks to Upfest’s involvement with the Weston Wallz initiative. We hadn’t even left the station when I spotted a surfeit of doors on a Network Rail maintenance wagon – this was going to be a good day.
Plenty of doors on this Network Rail rail grinder, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Being a seaside town, many of the doors are in fairly poor condition, from all that salt spray in the winter months, so, plenty of characterful doors, but not many ancient ones. The doors were a bit of a bonus on what was actually a street/graffiti art mission, but Paul was very patient with me as I snapped up a few interesting doors. I hope you enjoy them:
Blue doors of a certain period, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Green doors of a certain period in need of some TLC, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Dirty plain door and a little bit of graffiti, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Steel doors, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
More to come from this trip in due course. My I wish you a happy end of week.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
This is the third in a series of Ceus pieces that appear to be in a revised or reinvented style, largely around a colour scheme, and large bold and obvious letters. There are small references to some of his work from last year in the shape of a wing tip to the left of the letter C.
Ceus, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2023
The bright blue writing set on a white background has a heavenly look and feel to it an looks very fresh – so easy on the eye. There are some lovely colour fades in the fills and the orange outline/shadow with bubbles sets the whole piece off nicely – a quality work from Ceus.
Although I regularly post pieces by Face 1st, it is probably only about half of everything I photograph. He has been a consistently prolific artist in Bristol since I started writing about this stuff back in 2015 and has brought me personally a lot of joy with his constantly evolving themes and ideas, based on a face.
Face 1st, Coach and Horses, Bristol, May 2023
This is a wonderful example of Face 1st’s work, a really tidy piece with sumptuous colours that work son well together. Some of Face 1st’s throw ups can be a little untidy, but this is crisp and sharp and beautifully finished. The smiling girl with earrings has the word FACE for hair, with not a little gloop going on. This is classic Face 1st, classily painted and presented.
It is fitting that my six hundredth post from Dean Lane should feature a stunning collaboration wall from Vozie and Bnie, two of my favourite writers at the moment. There is an awful lot to like about this colourful collaboration, and the colours and style remind me of the cartoon fairground scene in Mary Poppins or the Village from the TV series ‘the Prisoner’ – the psychedelic elements probably elicit those thoughts.
Vozie, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
To the left Vozie does what she does, although in this version of her name, she has written VOSE, not VOZIE which we are more accustomed to seeing. Beautiful letters, beautiful fills and a fabulous drop shadow… there is little more to say.
Bnie, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
To the right Bnie has replicated the colours, fills and shadow to make this a truly collaborative piece. As with Vozie’s half, Bnie has created beautiful letters, using beautiful fills and a fabulous drop shadow. This is an exceptional piece from the RBF girls, and a bit of a fave of mine so far this year.
Kool Hand and Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, May 2023
I can’t believe we’re almost at the end of May, but it is true and with each day that passes more and more pieces of graffiti writing, and street art adorn our city walls. It can be a struggle at times to keep up, but a pleasurable struggle, if there is such a thing.
The light wasn’t particularly helpful on the day that I photographed this collaboration between Kool Hand and Daz Cat, but I might have just got away with it.
Kool Hand and Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, May 2023
To the left, a Kool crocodile chills up against a colourful palm tree, looking almost like a piece of quilt work (watch out Louis Masai!). On the right is a Daz Cat cat floating and mixing music. What is interesting about the collaboration is that Kool Hand’s work is quite flat, and Daz Cat’s has depth and perspective, bringing different aspects and styles to the piece. It is always good to see these two painting together.
To be perfectly honest, this is a collaboration that I never thought I would see, in fact, it would simply have never crossed my mind, but what a lot of fun it is. The collaborative piece is by Evey and Jody, and they have pulled it off with flying colours. The only downside is that it didn’;t last very long before being overpainted, which is a real shame, but that is the way in the Deaner at the moment.
Evey and Jody, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
In my view, Evey has definitely stepped up her game for this piece and created some tidy letters with a nicely worked stripy 3D drop shadow. There is a subtle red to pink fade in the letters to, which gives it that something extra.
Jody is a class act, and here he has painted a portrait piece of a woman wearing an RBF balaclava giving the middle finger in a gesture of attitude. The whole thing confuses a little with its passive-aggressive stance, but I guess that is the point of it. Jody also left us with a little ‘extra’ piece while he was there, which is great to see. This is an unusual, unexpected and most welcome collaboration.
Natural adventures 